Beserk
by Carrot52
Summary: Riley's life is filled with hardship, so when she get's landed with team JNPR and is once again sweapt into the war with Salem, how will her past be revealed? and how will this one girl effect the war?


Team JPNR was relaxing in their dorm, it was a weekend, so there was no classes, and they were bored, Phyrra spun a spoon that she had broken that morning in her hand with her semblance, Nora's head was on a table, and she groaned softly, Jaune, lay on his bed staring at nothing, and Ren sat on his bed reading a book, but not really absorbing the words. When suddenly a speaker crackled to life and Glynda's voice said

"Can team JPNR please report to professor Ozpin's office"

All four of them looked up.

"Did someone do something wrong?" Ren asked

"Nope" Nora replied, everyone rose an eyebrow at her

Maybe Glynda finally got Ozpin to reprimand us for that food fight the other day?" Phyrra suggested

"No, if that was the case team RWBY would've been called up as well" Ren replied

"We should go" Jaune said. As they made their way to Ozpin's office, they passed team CRDL, Cardin whopped and said

"Someone's in trouble!" The rest of his team laughed, Jaune glared in fury but Phyrra placed a hand on his.

"Just ignore them, the more you make a reaction, the more they respond" Hearing this Jaune pushed the anger down with effort and increased his pace, when they reached his office, they all stared in surprise, Ozpin sat behind his desk looking impassive, in front of a large window overlooking beacon, the office itself was bare and green coloured, with clogs turning in the ceiling like clockwork. Glynda stood next to Ozpin looking stern, but not angry, much to Jaune's relief, and standing in front the desk was a girl he'd never seen before, she was pale, with long golden brown hair that fell to her waist in curls, she wore a pair of jeans (but looked very uncomfortable with them on), a black singlet that covered most of her torso, but didn't reach the arms and leather gauntlets that covered most of her forearms. What surprised Jaune the most, were her eyes, at first, they were a clear blue with a brown ring around her pupil, but the longer he stared, the more they seemed to be green.

"You must be Riley" Ozpin said to me as I sat down

"Yes, I am"

"Do you have a last name?" He asked almost wearily, the was a long pause before I finally said

"No, I never met my parents so I don't" the lie slid of my tongue easily, I winced internally I hated lying, yet I did it all the time.

"I see" he said unconvinced

"As you know the school year has already started, the teams already formed, I cannot create a new team with just you in it, that would be unfair on a lot of accounts, so what I can do, is place you into a team already formed, to make things fair one of you may have to sit out battles that contain entire teams, do you agree to this?" He said

"Yes, I do" I replied shortly wanting this to be over and done with.

"Very well then" he gestured and Glynda placed a chess set in front me

"Pick a piece, the piece you pick determines your team."

I considered, I always played white, so black was out of the question, the queen had always been my favourite, oddly enough, there were no pawns, so that left... my third favourite I picked my piece.

"Professor Ozpin? You wanted us here" Jaune began, taking the role of leader seriously

"Yes, Mr Arc, we have a student transferring in from Shade, as we have no way of successfully creating a new team we decided that she would be placed in a team already formed, so I gave her a choice"

"Uhh, choice?" Jaune asked

"Ozpin had me choose a chess piece, the piece I chose determined which team I was placed in" the girl said, her voice was soft with a slight lilt. Ren narrowed his eyes, something about her accent was familiar to him, but for the life of him he couldn't place, shrugging to himself he concentrated on the conversation.

"And let me guess, you picked a white rook?" Ren said, Ozpin smiled

"Correct, team JPNR, meet your new team mate, Riley Augesta" Riley rose an eyebrow at Ozpin's declaration, but otherwise didn't say a word.

"For a point of fairness, for team battles one person will have to sit out, I'll let you five get to know each other. Jaune walked up and held up a hand

"Uhh, hey, my names Jaune and I'm the leader of team JPNR".

I walked through a corridor, that supposedly, led to the dorms, Jaune and Pyrrah talked about seafood, apparently Jaune was totally against the idea (I could relate) and Pyrrah loved it. Nora was was talking to Ren rapidly, and I was afraid that if she talked any more, she would chat her head off. I lagged behind, not wanted to intrude, I focused on the carpet, they way it looked like hills, or like sand dunes, like the ones back in Vacuo.

The sand was dyed red with blood, there was fire everywhere, my breathe came in short bursts, I watched as Lauren was hurled across the sand, Sean tried to drag her out of the way, only to be wrapped up by a snakelike grimm, of which I forgotten it's name.. something starting with a t. I tried to get up, to help them, but a coughing fit came, when I pulled my hand away, it was stained with blood, I stared at it for a long time, a sharp cry alerted me, Jessica was held down by an Ursa, I looked around me, my anger spiked with each look, my team, helplessly, I watched as they were all killed, a familiar blue haze settled over my vision.

I jerked awake gasping like a fish out of water, I sat up, unfamiliar furniture surrounded me, 'right, team JNPR's dorm, an extra bed had been pulled in, to the left of the door. The rest were all asleep thank god, a light snore emanated from Jaune, reminding me of my brother… that was the wrong thing to think about, a fresh wave of grief rolled over me, filling my lungs with imaginary water. Sucking in air as quietly as I could, I bolted out of bed and made a beeline for the bathroom, flipping the light on, I went to the sink and splashed my face with water, trying to erase the dream from my head, I was completely unsuccessful, flashes of it passed by, I shook my head, Lauren's face contorted with pain, I stuck my head under the water, Sean, gaping as an ursa's claw impaled him, I gasped, my mouth filled with water, Jessica, being crushed. I brought my head out, my semblance activated to absorb the water, my semblance, all it's ever brought me is grief, I don't even know the amount of people I've killed.

Ren is a light sleeper, always have been, he's also used to Nora waking him up with her nightmares, so he wasn't really surprised when he woke up for seemingly no reason at all, Ren sat up and looked towards Nora's bed, it was empty, which was good, Ren hated seeing Nora distressed, her nightmares, when they came, were terrible, ruling out Nora, he turned towards Jaune and Pyrrah, sleeping soundly, so that left, it was then that Ren noticed the the bathroom door was open and the light on, automatically moving quietly he slipped out of bed and strode to the bathroom, to see

"Riley?" Riley jumped and turned to face him, for a moment her expression was unguarded, and she looked scared, very scared and guilty, but then her face turned to one of surprise.

"Ren! You scared me!" She exclaimed quietly

"Is something wrong?" Ren probed cautiously

"No, everything's fine! I just needed to use the toilet! That's all!" Riley said way too quickly. Ren sighed

"Riley, we both know that wouldn't have been the case" Ren began

"What makes you say that?"

"Well for one thing, if you really needed to use the toilet, then you would've closed the door, even with all of us asleep" Ren leaned against the door frame, trying to appear casual

"Well, that's true I suppose" Riley hedged, Ren sighed again

"Riley, Nora has nightmares, bad ones" Ren paused unsure of why he was telling her this, but then then he took a deep breath and plunged ahead.

"Her nightmares tend to get easier if she get's reassurance from outside her ream, mostly if someone just talks, to her, if the nightmares get really bad, Nora tries to hide, make it seem as if nothing was wrong, and would always get this peculiar look on her face, you have that same look on your face, so Riley, I ask you again, is something wrong?" Riley looked down, before she leaned against a nearby wall, she took a deep breath before haltingly

"Look, my life, hasn't exactly been peachy, a lot of things happened, and recently, my only friends were killed, my imagination was annoying wild at best, the death of my friends, only really made it worse, so, I get nightmares".

"Do you want to talk about it?" Ren asked, but Riley just shook her head, and smiled tiredly

"No not right now, maybe eventually, but, not right now, for now, I think I'll just go back to bed"

"Are you sure" Ren asked -he seemed to be doing that a lot lately- Riley's smile grew and she nodded as she brushed past Ren, Ren turned the bathroom light off before following her, then stopped short.

"Ren, Riley?" Jaune said sleepily, "Is everything okay?"

"Yeah" Riley said going to her bed "Everything's just fine"

Ren snorted ever so slightly, going to his bed, then Nora piped up.

"Ren, I want pancakes, I had really weird dream about pancakes, and now I want some, ah, oh, and with lots of syrup, lots and lots of syrup!" Nora went on and on about pancakes before Ren interrupted her

"Nora"

"Yes Ren?"

"Go to sleep" the last thing Ren heard before slipping into sleep was Nora's cheeky giggle.


End file.
